How Much Does an Inbound Marketing and HubSpot Consultant Cost?

With so many small to medium-sized businesses jumping on the inbound marketing and HubSpot train over the last 5 years, there has been a rapidly growing demand in the industry for consultants and specialists that not only understand how to use the tool that is HubSpot(HS), but also truly know inbound marketing(IM) application principles for any business.

Along these same lines, many companies have attempted applying IM to their business, in conjunction with HubSpot, but have found a tough go at it, experiencing much less success that they’d hoped for and been left wondering if they should even continue using HubSpot at all.

When I first became a HS partner and value added reseller, I figured the majority of my business would come from new sign-ups/clients. Little did I know that I’d actually become inundated in work from existing HubSpot users that knew they weren’t using the tool to its fullest potential and came to me to get better results while also seeking a clearer inbound marketing strategy. I’ve actually shared many such case studies here on The Sales Lion, with the stories of Block Imaging and Yale Appliance being two of the most profound.

That being said, if you find yourself looking to hire a HubSpot and/or Inbound Marketing consultant, you likely want to know what type of price range to expect for such a service. As you might imagine, there are some major factors that will dictate this cost, some of which I’ll now briefly explain:

1. Insourcing vs. Outsourcing

So much of IM comes down to a company’s ability to do such things as produce content, enhance the website, leverage social media, etc. In certain cases, when an organization has a deeper vision of IM and each employee sees themselves as part of the marketing department and a “teacher”—amazing things can happen. But to get to this point can be difficult, and some organizations simply don’t want to fool with it. This being said, the more a company can handle in-house (insourcing) the less they’ll spend on an inbound marketing consultant or agency.

Note***At The Sales Lion, in most cases, we train our clients to move from an outsourcing to insourcing method over time. Typically, this process equates to a 6-12 month consulting contract.

2. Retainer vs. “Quick-Fix”

Many HubSpot partners and Inbound Marketing specialists work on a retainer model where they perform certain duties every month and get paid accordingly. Although this system works great for some businesses, others might not have the financial capabilities to spend that much, and therefore are left to attempt their own IM and HS strategies solo, with just a small amount of training.

Note***At The Sales Lion, we have packages for both systems based on the needs of the client. Most retainer clients are in the 2.5-8k monthly cost range, whereas the “training only” clients generally spend a one-time fee of 2-3.5k, depending on their needs.

With so much explosive growth these last few years, the need for HubSpot specialists has also grown exponentially.

3. Number of Inbound Marketing Needs

As previously mentioned, doing all facets of IM effectively can take a significant amount of work, and therefore manpower as well, especially if the company doing it is a large organization. In fact, here are just a few of the main components of inbound marketing:

Note***At The Sales Lion, our specialty is business blogging strategies with a heavy Search Engine Optimization(SEO) and lead to sale emphasis. This being said, we are usually involved in all facets of website design, “other Content,” CRM integration, and video as well.

4. Extent of Consulting (Workshops, virtual trainings, etc.)

Again, this comes down to the needs, size, and scope of a client’s situation. Some businesses are just looking for a small amount of phone-based consulting to get them on track. Others are aiming to create an organizational culture through the use of workshops and ongoing training. Therefore, depending on what is needed of the consultant, the price ranges can vary drastically in this area.

As you can see, with all these factors, it’s very difficult to say exactly what the cost of an inbound marketing/HubSpot consultant will be if your company elects to go that route.

Having been in this industry for a few years now with my own company and over 30 HS clients, and based on the hundreds of HubSpot VARs and IM specialists I’ve spoken with, most retainer-based models for consulting start no less than 1k a month and will get as high has 20k or so a month, depending on the needs of the organization.

More questions? Looking to get further numbers? Fill out our form below and we’ll be in touch shortly.

By Marcus Sheridan

9 Comments

September 3, 2015 at 1:54 pm

Kaiha Bertollini

We use HB, but need to outsource 3 different blogs. Two our blogs for creating Legal video content. The other for marketing/video strategies.

How much would this cost?

November 5, 2015 at 5:44 am

lacey colligan

Dear Marcus,

I am a doc who is now shifting my focus to safety and complexity science. I want to teach my audience (docs and administrators) to current limitations of current safety approaches in healthcare. Ultimately, I want to establish myself as an expert on this topic, and position for speaker and consulting contracts. I have solid methodologies that are unknown in US and solid international colleagues.

I have absolutely no idea how to do this and am very ineffective with my time trying to figure out. Do you know who can start with someone as basic as me? It is just me, myself, and I trying to do this.

thanks Lacey

November 7, 2015 at 6:32 am

Marcus Sheridan

You’re just going to have to get up a decent WordPress site Lacey and then allow yourself to start typing away– pushing yourself to hit publish as often as possible. Please understand that you don’t need to know everything to be great at this, you just need to be willing to learn as you go.

Best to you,

Marcus

April 29, 2016 at 1:05 am

Charles Naccio

Marcus your HubSpot form isn’t working; I think you have a glitch my friend!